Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-03-03
CATCHING A MAIL THIEF.
Story of a Girl Who Became a Criminal
for the Sake of Depraved Brother.


amount of bank notes sent by mail was
enormous. People had to send either
this way or by express, and, though
every sender felt that the mails were
not quite safe, he would take his
chances. There were many robberies.
as we all know, but not one dollar was
taken for S., 900 sent. Nowadays if
registered letter is missing it can be
traced pretty close to the party who
took it, but in those days Government
officer had to work for days or weeks
to nab the guilty party.
remember that was once sent to
Illinois to investigate the numerous
complaints which had come in regard
ing certain route. This route began
at Springfield and extended sixty-seven
miles, taking in towns which will call
Liverpool, Abbeville, White Rock,
Davisburg and Montgomery. 1t was
all stage route, and, as the country
was well settled up, the mails were
always heavy. Most of the complaints
had come from citizens of Springfield
and Montgomery. These were the two
largest places, and were at the extreme
ends of the route. Money sent from
Springfield would not reach Montgom-
cry, and vice versa. That is, it would
not reach the hands of the persons for
whom 1t was intended. I set to work
believing that had hard job before
me, for all the postmasters were men
who were above suspicion. I first rode
over the route several times, or until
perfectly satisfied that the mail carriers
had nothing to do with the robberies.
The nearest town to Springfield was
Liverpool. I mailed decoy letter
from there to Springfield, and it was
safely delivered. The nearest town to
Montgomery was Davisburg. I mailed
a decoy letter from there to Montgom-
cry, and it was safely delivered. That
seemed to prove that the robbery was
at Abbeville or White Rock / mailed
from Abbeville one way and from
White Rock the other, and, after few
days, was convinced that the trouble
was in the latter post-office.
White Rock was q village of seven
hundred inhabitants, and the post
office was kept in the wing of dry
goods store. The wing had been built
on for the office, and. besides having
a door from the street. there was a
second from the store and third from
the family sitting-room. This latter
led into the office itself, and was used
only by the postmaster and his family.
The postmaster was man nearly sixty
years old, reasonably well off. and the
first look into his face satisfied me that
he could know nothing of the robber-
les. He had two clerks in the store
with him, but they had nothing to do
with the mails. After little observa-
ton [ discovered that the postmaster
was assisted by his wife, woman of
about his own age, and by a young
woman who was related to them, but
served as hired girl. Every thing
seemed to be honest and straightfor-
ward in the Office, as far as could see
from the corridor, but that would have
been the case in any event. 1 mailed
decoy letter from that Office to
Springfield, and it passed safely.
Then 1 mailed one from there
to Montgomery, and it was lost. In
the course of three weeks 1 got three
decoy letters over the route all right,
while three more were stolen, and all
the evidence seemed to point to White
Ro k as the place.
by carefully watching the White
Rock Office found that on days when
the mail reached there at eleven O. clock
a. M, which was it's scheduled time,
my decoy letters went no further.
When the stage was late, which was
frequent occurrence, the letters passed
on safely. soon solved this mystery.
If the mail came in on time the young
woman helped to sort, wrap and dis
tribute it while the stage waited. If it
was late she had to be busy about the
dinner, and the postmaster and his wife
the girl was the guilty party. and when
| began to make inquiries about her l
found that she had very dissipated
brother in Sprin gfield, and that she
wrote him at least once a week. l
went to Springfield to look him up. and
found him drinking, playing billiards
and smoking cigars. Seemingly he
had plenty of money. In all my decoy
letters L had, of course, marked the
bills. and as luck would have it, | had
not Swallowed the young man over half
an hour when he offered one of these
bills to barkeeper, and l managed to
secure it in change. Then [ had him
locked up, and l returned to White
Rock to deal with his sister. l first
took the postmaster aside and made
myself known. and showed him my
proofs. He was greatly agitated, but
firm in his belief that the girl was in
nocent, and could explain matters. l
held my interview with her in the
kitchen. She was furiously indignant
at first, and even when explained the
decoy letters and showed her the mark
ed money she would not yield a hairs
breadth. I made search of her room
and in her trunk, found at least twenty
letters and envelopes, every one of
which had contained money and been
stolen from the mails. The sight of
these broke her down, and she con-
fessed to having distracted in all over
three hundred dollars, every dollar of
which had gone to her brother, who
was her nearest relative and beloved
in spite of his hard character. She got
off with fine, / believe, while the
brother was made accessory and got a
sentence of year or so, and the mat
ter so worked on the mind of the old
postmaster that he hanged himself in